Amid staffing shortages, Cuyahoga County questioning how many jobs actually needed

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Is Cuyahoga County’s payroll bigger than it must be?

That’s the query on the coronary heart of a brand new proposal to re-evaluate the county’s operational and organizational construction amid important, and in some circumstances long-standing, staffing shortages — and proper earlier than a transition of energy. The evaluation will contemplate the variety of workers in every division, the supervisor-to-staff ratio, and different operational features and advocate modifications to enhance effectivity.

The county needs to know if it will probably do extra with much less, Government Armond Budish’s Chief of Employees Invoice Mason mentioned, noting that the county was down 1,200 workers earlier within the yr and at present has greater than 800 vacancies. He instructed the evaluation to find out what number of of these positions the county really must fill.

“We’re down lots, and we’re nonetheless functioning,” Mason mentioned. “There are going to be a number of positions which might be on the books which have been on the books for only a actually very long time, and perhaps we received’t need to fill all of them.”

The county employed 4,818 folks in 2019 throughout its government companies, the county’s request for proposal says. These employees, both by way of direct companies or inside assist, are accountable for administering county features in well being and human companies, public security, justice companies, infrastructure upkeep and enchancment, financial and workforce improvement, sustainability, tax assortment, and variety, fairness and inclusion.

In a few of these departments, the county has been aggressively attempting to recruit extra employees. Council elevated pay for corrections officers to assist assist the jail, and Government Budish is planning to suggest raises for social employees to enhance circumstances and operations on the Division of Kids and Household Providers workplace.

However Mason questions whether or not different departments have already got the staffing wanted to carry out the anticipated duties. He couldn’t level to any particular jobs that is likely to be superfluous, however he mentioned primarily based on the variety of vacancies at present, he assumes there are numerous.

Slicing these positions from the county payroll wouldn’t result in a lot job loss, he mentioned.

The proposal comes because the county is about to transition to new management, both below government candidate Lee Weingart, a Republican, or Democrat Chris Ronayne. The outcomes of the potential two-year examine might assist them determine find out how to construct their group, Mason mentioned.

The candidates aren’t fully opposed.

“I prefer it. I believe it’s the appropriate solution to go,” Weingart instructed cleveland.com on Tuesday. “This RFP speaks to a number of what I’ve been saying on the marketing campaign path for 20 months.”

Weingart has been promising to shrink county authorities, and a part of his plan already included slicing about 800 jobs to avoid wasting the county cash. He particularly counseled the county’s request to re-evaluate supervisory roles.

Final he knew, the county’s treasury division staffed 27 frontline employees and 9 supervisors, “which strikes me as a reasonably outrageous supervisor-to-frontline-worker ratio.” He thinks three supervisors is likely to be extra applicable and hopes that’s one of many suggestions the overview will make.

Ronayne has proposed creating a number of new county workplaces to handle housing, transportation, and immigration, and a county ombudsmen workplace to deal with complaints and join residents to accessible sources. To that finish, he’s already planning a “finances impartial” realignment of county sources and says there’s advantage in reviewing authorities operations after 12 years below the brand new constitution, however not if it excludes path from the county’s subsequent chief.

“It’s simply too near the transition to lock in on a corporation that’s going to advise on the way forward for the following chapter of county authorities,” Ronayne mentioned, noting the election is just a little over a month away. “It’s yet one more initiative that’s going to get launched previous to the brand new exec taking their seat, and the very last thing you need is to waste taxpayer monies on change orders.”

Ronayne wouldn’t say whether or not he believes there are areas for workforce discount, however he criticized Weingart for taking that place.

“I believe my opponent has talked sport about decreasing employees and bettering companies,’ Ronayne mentioned. “These two ends don’t meet.”

As a part of the evaluation, the proposal asks distributors to additionally advocate find out how to enhance employees retention and succession planning. The candidates have already got a few of their very own options in thoughts.

Weingart goals to enhance the work atmosphere by way of higher communication and entice new candidates with added advantages, like offering free parking and onsite childcare. He mentioned he additionally isn’t satisfied that each job posting ought to require a school diploma and want to overview the stipulations for some positions.

“If we are able to loosen these necessities just a little bit (for) individuals who have some faculty or perhaps no faculty however real-world expertise that substitutes for faculty, we’d be capable of entice extra of us to the county authorities,” Weingart mentioned.

Ronayne additionally isn’t against enjoyable among the licensing obstacles that restrict certified candidates, however he additionally proposes rising coaching incentives, addressing dependable transportation, and finding extra authorities companies within the communities they serve, quite than asking employees and residents to come back downtown.

The staffing disaster, he mentioned, “it’s exhibiting.”

It’s not clear when the proposed evaluation would possibly develop into a actuality. The county nonetheless must vet proposals and advocate its most popular vendor to council. Councilmembers would then contemplate the contract and determine whether or not to approve it.